The North's Bitter Harvest

Two weeks ago, Kang bribed North Korean and Chinese border guards, and crossed the Tumen River to China from the North Korean frontier town of Hoeryong. Like hundreds of refugees who flee totalitarian North Korea every year, Kang has plenty of reasons to leave family and home, but one gnaws at her: hunger. Kang (not her real name) says she has been surviving on corn and noodles for the past few months. With planting season in the North just beginning, food stores are short and many townspeople aren't getting enough to eat, she says. North Koreans used to be able to...